Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

I have a United Health Medicare Advantage plan and really like it (monthly premium is $0), covering dental checkups, eye exams, and prescriptions, too. But, don't forget, that even with an Advantage plan, you still have to pay the government a quarterly premium for Medicare.

Couple of differences between Advantage and Supplemental/original. Biggest one is Insurance company makes your care decisions instead of Medicare with Advantage. Another one is Supplemental will give you care anyplace in USA. Recently Supplemental is offering eye, dental and ear. Advantage plans are pushed because agents get a commission for each signing. Not so much with Supplemental.
Read the fine print on all plans. My neighbor had a supplemental plan. Got talked into an Advantage plan because it was cheaper. Last August he was diagnosed with liver cancer. His out of pocket cost was $11k until he was able to switch back to his original supplemental plan. His cost today is $0. He does pay a higher monthly amount for his supplemental. But nowhere near the Advantage copays.
I am sure there are good Advantage plans. But like Supplemental they cost more.
Since I was diagnosed with C in 2018. Every plan is expensive if I wanted to change.

 

[daugen]

watered all the plants and have a hose running slowly under the new big tree planted.

found the first cicada shell, must have been living in my front flower garden for last 17 years.

put all the ingredients, except the chopped kale, in a Instapot and set to beef stew. Tried some
brussel sprouts in there this time. I'm not a brussel sprout person at all but if you cook them a lot and hide
them in a stew, hopefully they will be infused with the beef broth and and lose that funky green taste.
small red potatoes, onions, medium salsa and low salt beef broth. And a big hunk of sirloin I got on sale and braised first in worchestershire sauce.
It winds up being about 75 percent vegetable and 25 percent meat. Once it cooks down a little I'll throw the kale in and let that cook
down into a nice consistency that is also healthy to eat.

Got that going and started making cherry apple pie, which is now in oven.
Hope to take that over to MIL tomorrow and share with her.

 

[rswyan]

Good Morning.

84F @ 12:00, supposed to be heading up to a high of 87F today. High hit 87.6F yesterday. In a heatwave pattern for the next six days, then cooling to more seasonable temps. Six days in the Ten Day forecasted for chances of rain, starting on Sunday.

The Squeak is out in the garage on safari.

Started off yesterday by putting out some mealworms in the back feeder. Also filled up the hopper feeder with sunflower/safflower/peanut mix.

Then I moved regular bucket and shrub buckets around back, to get them off the pull-through area/circle so it could be sprayed.

Mixed up another 20 gallons of glyphosate and sprayed the rest of the area on the east of the frog pond and all along the east side of the house and parking area out front up to the hole where the culvert empties out.

At that point I was thoroughly drenched in sweat from standing out in the sun wearing a black t-shirt and was not enjoying the heat at all so I decided to knock off for a while and came inside.

Put a load of wash in and got the 168 page parts manual for the EZ-Go cart printed off.

Once I got the clothes in the dryer (air only, no heat) I headed off for the mower shop to pick up the oil filter for the Cub. Ran by Tractor Supply and picked up 2 1/2 gallons of RM18 which was on sale. Grabbed an iced Butter Pecan Coffee at the Dunkin' next door while I was there.

Ordered some Mobil 1 10w30 from Amazon for the Cub.

Got the pre cleaner foam washed off when I got back and then waited until around 20:00 when the sun was low and it was cooling off to go back out and spray. Got almost all of the pull-through area done before it got dark enough that I decided I better call it a day.

Still no action on sparrow trap as of yesterday.

Agenda for today:

Feed fish first thing (because it didn't get done yesterday)

Call Chapin and pester them to see if they have a shipping date for some non-defective parts.

Oil pre cleaner foam, install on air cleaner and reinstall on Cub.

Euthanize house sparrow chicks in Nest Box No. 3 before they fledge.

Water/feed the two remaining blueberry plants, looking like the middle one has died unfortunately ...

On a more positive note, while I have not taken a complete inventory, it looks as though most of the rhododendrons I transplanted last year have made it and are showing signs of new growth and/or blooming ... ... along with all the hostas of course ...

Check creek crossing and see how it's drying up, maybe rake it out. It should be in shade.

Get started on weeding northwest planting bed. Also in shade.

Attic fan just kicked on.

If I need some inside time to cool off I have a second mealworm feeder that needs assembled, along with the barn owl box (that I owe Drew some pictures of) that needs coated with BLO. Along with kitchen cleanup and cleaning the cat pans.

Assuming it cools off this evening, might tackle cleaning out the van.

Hope everybody has an enjoyable, productive, and safe day ...

 

[pennwalk]

It’s starting to get pretty dry out there. The only good thing is that grass has slowed down

Same Here. I mowed at the farm yesterday. Hot and dusty. I chugged a lot of water. Boy did the shower feel good afterwards.

I'm going back to the farm to mow the lane. I kind of like the heat so I'm looking forward to some tractor time.

The good news here is that the covid daily case count is slowly going down. Looks like the vaccine is working.

Chris

 

[Diwali]

Good afternoon! Here on our rain soaked & windswept island off the north coast of Wales (UK) we’re patiently waiting for summer to start. Our topsy turvy weather has so far this year produced the hottest, driest April and probably the wettest May on record.
Roll on summer!

 

[sodamo]

65°F and .82 inches rain.

Going to help John get his “new” tractor relocated to his property. Another friend has a suitable trailer but will take 2 trips. Luckily another neighbor has a Kubota to help unload the implements from 1st trip.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[kenmbz]

Welcome to the Good Morning thread Diwali.
I have seen pictures of where you are, really great hiking area on the sea.

 

[sodamo]

Welcome to the new guys. Jump right in.

 

[PJSprog]

63°F and mostly clear skies this morning, going up to 84° today. We'll be around 90° for the weekend. By contrast, a friend in Tahoe said their expecting 5-6" of snow.

Been ridiculously busy at work this week, and am now ridiculously behind on the GM thread conversations. Still have about 200 more posts to read to get to this point.

Add my welcome to the new guys.

 

[toppop52]

46 early, 79 and headed to 81 now.
It’s so dry my grass is turning brown. It’s very ragged and needs mowing in places. Not sure what I’m going to do.
There’s been a C-130 and Air Force trainers out all day. It’s been pretty noisy when you add that to the American commuter jets and the particularly large private jets that have been in and out today.
My wife is gone for the day, so I don’t have to do nuffin if I don’t want to. But I want to do I’d better go looking.